AMSTERDAM -- The crucial first phase of one of Europe’s most ambitious Fibre To The Home (FTTH) undertakings, Amsterdam CityNet, is on target and is expected to be completed by mid-2008 according to Karel Helsen, Director Marketing of Draka Comteq.

In the face of fierce international competition Draka Comteq won this prestigious contract to make fibre to the home in big cities a reality in Europe. Upload and download speeds over a hundred times faster than those possible with ADSL over copper are expected to drive consumer markets for High Definition TV, multi-media downloads and file sharing as well as numerous other community sharing projects.

"European projects such as Amsterdam CityNet will revolutionise the broadcast and multimedia services industry as we know it today," said Karel Helsen, who will present at the I-NEC (International Network of E-Communities) conference on Broadband Cities in Amsterdam, 13 November.

40,000 wired buildings

The first Amsterdam areas to have the broadband infrastructure installed are the districts of Zeeburg, Oost/Watergraafsmeer and Osdorp, a total of 40,000 houses and buildings.

In 2006 Draka Comteq began construction of this major FTTH project, partnering with Van den Berg Infrastructuren. Draka Comteq, itself a jointly owned company of Draka and Alcatel, is a global leader in optical fibre technology, cabling solutions and applications and project management expertise for broadband infrastructures.

The first phase of the project, valued at € 30 million is coordinated on behalf of GNA (Fiber Network Amsterdam) by Arcadis, an international companyspecialized in engineering and consulting for infrastructure, environment and facilities.

GNA (Glasvezel Net Amsterdam) is a joint activity of the Municipality of Amsterdam (one third), a consortium of 5 housing societies (one third), ING Real Estate + Reggefiber BV (one third).

Tjabin van Bergen, Telecoms Program Manager of Arcadis emphasizes the importance of the CityNet project to Amsterdam as a technology showcase . The fibre optic network could eventually reach 420,000 homes and businesses by 2013, at a total cost of € 300 million, running on open access principles that are expected to stimulate services innovation in the city, providing a huge competitive edge for knowledge workers while at the same time giving greater choice to consumers.

Amsterdam CityNet has the blessing of the European Commission, anxious to give Europe a competitive position over the Far East and USA. At present, local governments in 32 European countries are considering widespread deployment of independent fibre optic networks, especially as they promise to boost local economic development and promote social inclusion.

The Fibre To The Home concept originally developed by Draka Comteq for City Environment applications, was refined to meet the specific needs of Amsterdam, resulting in a FTTH platform which is proving to be a model for other European cities.

Faster speeds broaden applications

The bandwidth of the Amsterdam CityNet can be 100 Mbit/s upstream and downstream. This is 100 times faster than the download speed and up to 300 times faster then the upload speed of ADSL. With the average European ADSL speed of 0.6 Mbit/s, this gives a significant speed advantage compared to ADSL, which uses traditional copper cables.

Fibre optic networks are capable of simultaneously transporting a variety of traffic: telephone, High Definition cable TV and radio, internet and computer data. Expanding applications are: home-working, multi-media file sharing, video on demand, teleconferencing, security and home protection functions. The surge in HD TV and music sales together with the rapid evolution of HD IP TV will be accelerated by access speeds that were previously impossible.

Smooth deployment

Aradis’ Tjabin van Bergen said, “Our choice of Draka Comteq for this critical first phase of Amsterdam CityNet has been validated by the smoothness with which deployment is continuing since we began working together last year. With a choice of 3 leading companies to choose from, the selection process was not easy.”

“It’s important to emphasize that the selection was not only made on a basis of price, but on the total cost of ownership of the completed project over a period of 10 years. What was essential to us in choosing partners was their understanding of the value that would result from the exploitation phase. The combination of Draka Comteq with Van den Berg was a team that inspired confidence and offered us exceptional insight into the long term benefits of the project. In additional together they have the experience, people and materials to get the job done. We are impressed by their proactive approach and the initiatives shown in resolving initial issues to ensure that deadlines are met.”

Draka Holding NV (Amsterdam: DRAK.AS)